Carnes: American Taliban alive and unwell

They prefer to call themselves “Christian nationalists,” but the American equivalent of the Taliban, or ISIS, Houthis, or whatever Islamic-based terrorist organization you choose, they are all guided by the same basic premise that a supernatural being gives them the right to control the rights of others.

Funny thing though, out of the thousands of deified beings to choose from, they are willing to fight to the death to prove theirs is the only one that is “real” while simultaneously claiming they are the most peaceful and loving.

Which brings us to last week’s decision in Alabama by Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker, when he claimed, “Even before birth all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”

Notice he doesn’t say which specific deity’s image, but implies the one he believes in is the one we should all follow because … well, because he says so.

Justice Parker is an elected member of the Alabama Supreme Court – in America – invoking his personal religious belief into public policy that a frozen embryo “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Yes, the same deity that allowed the Holocaust to occur and Patrick Mahomes to throw that final touchdown and win the Super Bowl has now declared frozen embryos used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) are legally people, with the result being doctors and others can be held legally liable for destroying them as if they had murdered the woman seeking those embryos in the first place.

IVF does not stand for “Immediately Viable Fetus,” but it apparently could in Alabama, with the obvious next step being those immediately wanting to claim embryos as dependents on tax returns and filing insurance claims for discarded embryos, and certainly a few fanatics claiming it’s child abuse to freeze embryos in the first place, or at least unlawful detention, leading to the inevitable claim that male masturbation and a woman having a period could be considered murder.

While some might think I’m taking this premise to the extreme, understand this is only the tip of the Christian nationalist iceberg. It’s not just delusional zealots like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Patriot Front, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Michael Flynn, Nick Fuentes, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert among others in the public eye, but an activist group of authoritarian extremists known as “Project 2025.”

Their goals include banning immigration of non-Christians, same-sex marriage, access to contraception and destroying the democratic structures that allow non-Christians to vote and seek public office in this country.

Scary stuff, to say the least.

As religious freedom is a foundational principle of our constitution, I will stand up and fight for every American’s right to worship and believe in whomever or whatever supernatural being they choose, but will do the exact same for those choosing to believe only that which can be proven in a natural world. Yet the very moment religious principles are used as a sole basis for changing public policy, it is open season and fair game on those principles.

From burning books to hating homosexuals to controlling women to teaching their particular version of a deity in public schools to turning our democracy into a theocracy, the American Taliban must be stopped at the ballot box this November.

I urge everyone to pay attention like you never have before, for the future of us all depends on it.

Richard Carnes, of Avon, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.